The Cubs lost a legend this week with the passing of Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks. On this, the 292nd episode of The Ivy Envy Podcast, we talk about Ernie's on-the-field accomplishments and what he meant to Cubs fans after his retirement.

This week, the Cubs traded Luis Valbuena and Dan Straily for Dexter Fowler. We talk about how our opinions of Valbuena changed over the last few years and what the trade means for the outfield and infield for the 2015 Cubs.

We check back in on Javier Baez, who is playing winter ball in Puerto Rico. Baez has not figured out his strikeout issue and his spot on the opening day roster seems to be in question.

We answer several listener questions and read some internet muscle flexes.

If you have not yet nominated Ivy Envy in the sports category of the 10th Annual Podcast Awards, you can do that here - PodcastAwards.comCheck out our Patreon campaign here - Patreon.com/IvyEnvy

Last year, our podcast was a finalist in the Sports category of the 9th Annual Podcast Awards. It was incredible to represent our podcast and listeners at the Podcast Awards ceremony in Las Vegas last January. We lost to ESPN, but it was incredible to be listed next to the biggest names in sports broadcasting.

The nomination period is underway for the 10th Annual Podcast Awards. Nominating us is very easy and we'd really appreciate it if you took the 30 seconds to do it.

Welcome to the 290th episode of The Ivy Envy Podcast. You could say that Cubs Convention signals the beginning of the upcoming baseball season and the event is this upcoming weekend. Andy and Corey will be going to Chicago for the convention and we talk about what we’re expecting this weekend. If you aren’t able to attend the convention, follow us on Twitter –@IvyEnvy. If you don’t use Twitter, the live stream of our Twitter feed will be displayed in the first post displayed on our website, IvyEnvy.com

Spring Training is also coming up and we’ve decided that we will be doing a meet-up at the Cubs @ Diamondbacks game on March 19th. If you will be at Spring Training and would like to join us, you can purchase the general admission lawn seats from Diamondbacks.com.

More concrete details on the TV broadcasts of Cubs games. Kurt shares the latest info, which is exactly what we speculated would happen. There’s a lot of concern with Cubs fans in the midwest outside of Chicagoland. If you are outside Chicago and worried that you won’t have access to Cubs games on tv in 2015 and beyond, listen to this episode to hear how you can do your part in making these broadcasts available in your local market.If you are in Indiana, DeRose has started this Facebook group: Let Indiana Watch the Chicago Cubs

The Cubs added a veteran right-handed hitting platoonable outfielder in Chris Denorfia. The real debate in this conversation is whether his nickname should be Deno or Norf. Either way, you need to look at him. He’s the sickest playerrr.

Sporting News created a little buzz this week by predicting that the Cubs will win the World Series in 2015. We comment on this and call it what it is.

We have several questions from listeners, including conversations such as whether or not there’s a nickname that rhymes with Lester that isn’t “molester”. There’s a question about Samardzija’s performances later in the season. We talk about the future of Welington Castillo and what the Cubs may get in return for their extra catcher. We also compare Cardinals fans and Reds fans.

We have an interview episode for you this week on the podcast. Harry Pavlidis joins me to talk about pitch framing.

With the addition of Miguel Montero and the potential departure of Welington Castillo, it’s obvious that pitch framing is important to this front office and there’s nobody better to talk about pitch framing than Harry Pavlidis.

In this discussion we’ll start at the basics….what is pitch framing. We’ll also talk about how this statitstic is measured, it’s value and we’ll talk about how good Miguel Montero is at it and how bad Welington Castillo is at it. And most importantly, what does the change from Montero to Castillo mean for the 2015 Cubs?